Engineering · XX century

Svetozar Zimonjić

1928 — 1999 · lived 71 years

Biography of Svetozar Zimonjić

Early Life and Education

Svetozar Zimonjić was born in 1928 in Avtovac, Gacko. He completed his primary education in Mostar and continued his secondary education in Sarajevo before World War II disrupted his studies. After the war, he completed high school and, in 1947, began studying electrical engineering at the Polytechnic Institute in Sverdlovsk. He later transferred to the Faculty of Electrical Engineering in Belgrade, where he graduated in early 1953. In 1971, he earned his doctorate from the Faculty of Electrical Engineering in Sarajevo.

Academic and Professional Career

After six years of working on the design and construction of the Ilijaš metallurgy complex, Zimonjić joined Energoinvest in 1959, a leading industrial and engineering company in Yugoslavia. Parallel to his professional career, he entered academia, first as a lecturer at the Faculty of Technology in Tuzla in 1959. In 1962, he moved to the Faculty of Electrical Engineering in Sarajevo, where he was promoted to Associate Professor in 1967 and Full Professor in 1972.

Throughout his career, he remained actively engaged in both academic and industrial research. He played a key role in Energoinvest, initially leading the automation design bureau before becoming the director of the Institute for Research and Development in Automation (IRCA), which he also founded. His leadership helped establish a highly advanced automation sector in Yugoslavia, with over 1,000 experts working in research, production, and system design.

Contributions to Science and Engineering

Zimonjić's early research focused on the study of electrical power systems, producing significant papers such as "Simple Circular Diagram of an Arc Furnace", "Ore-Thermal Furnace", and "Rewiring of Short-Circuit Machines from 500V to 380V".

However, his most significant contributions were in the field of automatic control systems, a revolutionary and emerging discipline at the time. His work laid the foundation for the development of automation and control engineering in Yugoslavia. Under his guidance, Energoinvest became a leader in control system technology, working on projects in collaboration with international institutions, including the Academy of Sciences of the USSR.

Zimonjić's academic influence extended beyond his faculty, as he played a crucial role in introducing control theory courses at other faculties within the University of Sarajevo. His research encompassed optimal control theory and poorly structured systems, resulting in numerous influential papers, such as:

Analytical Approximation of Transfer Delay with Aggregate Regulators
An Approach to the Synthesis of Some Optimal Systems
A Structural Variant (SPS)
Generalization of Frequency Methods
Gradient Basis of the Simplex Method

Leadership and Institutional Contributions

Zimonjić was deeply involved in scientific and research policy-making. He served as a member of both the Republican and Federal Scientific Councils, contributing to the advancement of engineering and technical sciences in Yugoslavia.

During the 1992–1995 war in Bosnia and Herzegovina, he remained in Sarajevo, actively ensuring that academic and research activities continued at the Faculty of Electrical Engineering despite the war conditions.

Awards and Recognitions

For his outstanding contributions, Zimonjić received numerous prestigious awards, including:

AVNOJ Award – the highest national recognition in Yugoslavia
April 6th Award of the City of Sarajevo
Order of Labor with Golden Wreath

He was a member of the Russian Academy of Sciences and was elected Corresponding Member of the Academy of Sciences and Arts of Bosnia and Herzegovina (ANUBiH) in 1973, becoming a Full Member in 1978. From 1981 to 1990, he served as President of ANUBiH, leading the academy through a critical period of scientific and technological development in Bosnia and Herzegovina.

Legacy and Passing

Svetozar Zimonjić left a lasting impact on the fields of automation, control engineering, and electrical engineering. His visionary leadership helped shape Bosnia and Herzegovina’s scientific community and positioned Energoinvest as a global leader in industrial automation.

He passed away in Sarajevo in 1999, leaving behind a legacy of innovation, education, and scientific excellence.

Maintained by contributors. First written February 2025